


Inheratance

by Starren_Moonstone



Series: Collections from The Journalist - Whumptober Edition [10]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Mourning, Take me instead, The End (entity), Whumptober 2020, for the greater good, temporary memory loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26951839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starren_Moonstone/pseuds/Starren_Moonstone
Summary: Kitty finds out why her mother has kept a music box secret for all her life.
Series: Collections from The Journalist - Whumptober Edition [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947499





	Inheratance

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober Day 9: "For the Greater Good" - Take Me Instead
> 
> Alternate Title - how Kitty becomes an End Avatar

October 1st, 2017

There is a music box that Kitty’s mother has always had in her possession. It is a handheld objects, easily done so within two hands. It is an ornately decorated thing: a wooden box painted black and ordained with gold out-linings. Kitty has always believed that at one point, there were jewels that decorated the outside of it as well, due to the odd gaps in the gold decoration. 

Kitty’s mother never talks about the music box, and often keeps it hidden somewhere in the her bedroom. Kitty has always been curious as to what is inside it. It has to be something important, if her mother tries to keep it secret. There is only one thing that has kept her from ever going through with opening it, and it is the ominous feeling that the box radiates. Something isn’t right with it. 

“I’m glad you decided to come out and visit your grandfather,” Kitty’s mom says, working with the pumpkin bread batter she has been making. “If only I can convince Matthew to do the same.”

Kitty slouches on a stool, nearly rolling her eyes. “Matt doesn’t want to see him in his condition now,” Kitty says, “I talked to him a few weeks ago. Doesn’t want to deal with it.” Like she doesn’t want to deal with it, but at least she’ll go see him.

“Everyone faces mortality in different ways,” Kitty’s mother says, “He will have to come to terms with it eventually, and I hope before Reginald’s time is up.”

Kitty watches her mother’s mixing motion. “Do you think he has very long?”

“I don’t believe he will live another year, but I think he is holding out to see certain people. Not sure who. He hasn’t said any names.”

Kitty sighs. “It’ll be sad to see him go.”

Kitty’s mom nods. “I know it’ll be hard for your father. The two of them are close, ever since your Aunt Millie died.”

That was an odd day, as Kitty remembers it. Her Aunt Rosamine came over unexpectedly with her cousin Diane, going on and on about finding Diane’s parents, Aunt Millie and Uncle Avery, dead in the bathroom. Diane did not speak at all that first day and she stayed for about a week with Kitty’s family before going to live with Aunt Rosamine. 

Kitty’s mom noticed Kitty’s falling expression. “Here, there is something I want to show you,” she says, giving her daughter a sympathetic smile. “In my closet upstairs, there should be a shoe-box on the second to last shelf. I’ll join you once I get the bread in the oven, ok?”

Kitty perks up a little and nods, running upstairs wondering what her mother wants to show her. The closet is divided by her mother’s clothes and her father’s clothes, with a series of shelves making the divide. Kitty easily spots the shoe-box, and places it on her parent’s bed. She opens it up and finds scattered items that she knows once belonged to her deceased aunt and uncle, as well as scattered pictures of the two of them with their three kids. Better times. Younger times. 

Though, there is one item out of place. A gold ring with ominously black lettering all around it. She knows neither her aunt or uncle ever possessed it because this is her ring. She found it in the forest when she was a child, when she was exploring with her brother and cousins. The inscription around it reads “omina mors aquat”: “Death makes all things equal”. She had always thought it went well with the music box, being of similar coloring.

Kitty looks over to her mother’s bureau, where the music box rests and a key is in the lock. Kitty glances at the door, puts the ring on her finger, and walks over to the box. The same ominous feeling is still radiating from it, but… it seems to call to her. It feels… right. 

Kitty turns the key to the box and opens it up. A haunting tune begins to play as the figurine in the middle begins to spin in a mechanical dance. The figurine is of two people. The first is a genderless person dressed in a black tuxedo, their face unpainted and obscured by a hood of a shoulder cloak they wear. The second… looks a lot like herself. A young woman with long, wavy hair, left down with only a few hair clips to keep her hair out of her face. She wears a plain shirt underneath a a nice jacket, with black dress pants to compliment said jacket. Her face is looking up at her partner, unreadable as to how she feels about it. 

Something start curling up around her legs, arms, and head. A feeling of sinking. With the box in hand, Kitty turns to look at the room she finds herself in, that she no longer recognizes, and comes face to face with the tuxedo person. In person, Kitty can see behind the hood into this person’s eyes… they are lifeless as diamonds. This is it. This is Death itself. The sinking feeling grows greater as it clutches Kitty’s chest and draws her breath away.

“Christina!” Kitty turns to see a woman in the doorway to the room. Her eyes are wide in panic, staring at Death, who has had a hand held out to Kitty this whole time. 

Death turns to this newcomer, wordless but with one question permeating the room all the same. 

“Take me instead,” the woman says, walking up to Death, “Do to my life as you would to hers. I freely give it.”

The sinking feeling disappears and all the fear rushes into Kitty as she finally recognizes her own mother, now grasped in the clutches of black roots, curling around her arms and face. There is something in her mother’s eyes that Kitty has never noticed before, a crystal like glint that Death permanently has. Kitty’s mother smiles at her daughter for a moment, before closing her eyes and falling lifelessly on the floor. Death has disappeared, now only residing in the figurine still twirling in the music box. 

“Mom!” Kitty drops the box and cradles her mother in her arms. There is nothing left of the woman she once loved, just her corpse that can give her no comfort. Her mother’s skin is already cold, and the roots that had her still linger, tattooed to the skin. 

Kitty’s father find her like that, crying into her dead mother’s hair, unable to do anything else, the box still lying open on the ground, the music having stopped hours ago. Kitty eventually finds herself in her room, sitting on her bed, all emotions being scooped from her soul. 

She looks into the mirror in front of her. Death stands behind her, its eyes once again hidden behind the hood. And Kitty’s own eyes have the same lifeless glint the she had seen in her mother’s eyes. In Death’s eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what you read and want to learn more and keep up with this content, I have a tumblr set up. beholdingwriter.tumblr.com I'll be posting up the stories on there, as well as answering questions about the characters involved in this collection of stories.


End file.
